LAN application management has become the subject of significant recent interest, not only because of the popularity of low cost LAN communication links for personal computers but also because of the ready made access via a LAN to many application programs. Until this invention, it was impossible for LAN applications to have multiple LAN adapters connected to a single network on a single computer system identically named. Rather, each adapter required a unique name.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,159 entitled, Netbios Name Authentication, disclosed a method and system for insuring that names are not used illegally on a local area network. The Netbios protocols use a naming system that allows any station to claim a name or set of names that are not already in use, by claiming the name when the real user is not connected to the network. This patent clearly shows the prior art approach of requiring unique names for devices attached to a LAN. However, there is no disclosure of shared names for LAN adapters on a single computer system or on the same network.